Symposium Spotlight: Lee White

Lee White spends most days at Chickamauga and Chattanooga, where he works as a park ranger, but this summer, at the Fourth Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge, Lee will make a foray into the Georgia interior. His talk: “‘They left their lifeless remains as testimonials to futility’: The Confederate Defense of Kennesaw Mountain.”

“The Atlanta Campaign was a learning experience for the officers and men of the Army of Tennessee as they began what one soldier in its ranks called ‘a hundred days battle,’” Lee says. “This fighting was almost always on the defense, and the men in the ranks developed better skills with each fight for constructing fortifications and defending the best ground. By the time they reached what becomes known as the Kennesaw Line, they had reached the pinnacle of their skills and presented the best defense that Sherman faced during the entire Atlanta Campaign.”

Lee—more formally known as William Lee White—works at the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, where he gives tours and other programs at the Chickamauga and Lookout Mountain Battlefields. He is the author of Bushwhacking on a Grand Scale: The Battle of Chickamauga, part of the Emerging Civil War Series, as well as several articles and essays on topics related to the Western Theater.

He also edited Great Things Are Expected of Us: The Letters of Colonel C. Irvine Walker, 10th South Carolina Infantry CSA. Over the years, he has spoken to many roundtables, historical societies, and other history-minded groups.

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Tickets for this year’s Symposium, Aug. 4-6, 2017, are available for $125 (order here). They include Friday night’s reception, speakers, keynote address, and historians’ roundtable; Saturday’s line-up of talks; coffee service and lunch on Saturday; and Sunday’s tour of the Brandy Station battlefield.